The present invention relates to a valve arrangement for venting a coolant circuit of an internal combustion engine.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Valve arrangements of a type involved here are typically used in the automobile industry to separate unwanted air bubbles from a coolant. These air bubbles can form in the coolant of the coolant circuit as a result of heat generated during operation of an internal combustion engine and can cause damage to structural parts and/or can adversely affect the cooling capacity. To address this problem, it has been proposed to provide the coolant circuit with vent lines which are connected to a compensating reservoir. As the compensating reservoir is filled only partly with coolant, rising air can be collected in the reservoir in addition to coolant.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved valve arrangement for venting a coolant circuit to obviate prior art shortcomings and to allow a venting of several subcircuits of the coolant circuit separately from one another in a common compensating reservoir.